Tag: Free Run Kids

So, apparently in Japan, children as young as six and seven travel alone:

It’s a common sight on Japanese mass transit: Children troop through train cars, singly or in small groups, looking for seats.

They wear knee socks, polished patent leather shoes, and plaid jumpers, with wide-brimmed hats fastened under the chin and train passes pinned to their backpacks. The kids are as young as six or seven, on their way to and from school, and there is nary a guardian in sight.

Oh my, what an exotic sight.

So exotic, that in the 70s and early 80s in Vancouver, Canada, I saw it all the time. Heck, I was one of those kids. At that age, I would take myself from my home down to the YMCA for gymnastics classes and I would take myself to school, either using the bus or just walking. It never occurred to me or my parents that I should do otherwise, or that I couldn’t do it.

I remember moving to Vancouver at age six or so, and exploring the city and the beach, downtown, by myself.

And I can tell you that there were some pretty seedy parts of Vancouver. It was heroin city back then, too.

I spent my days doing what I wanted once school was out, and I was responsible only for being home at meal times and bed time. My parents had only the vaguest idea where I was or what I was doing. “Going out to play” included a multi-block radius.

Here’s the truth: Most adults can be trusted and will look out for small children. Further, most of the time small children don’t need it; they are more capable than modern Westerners think they are. I cast back, thinking of times I needed the help of strangers. I can remember only two, and both times it was given unstintingly and without my even asking.

We are a paranoid bunch of ninnies. There is, actually, less violence now (though perhaps it is because we keep them in a closet and throw away the key) than there was in the past, and most danger is almost entirely from people they know. It is not some nasty stranger who will hurt your child: It is Uncle Bob, or a teacher, coach, or neighbour you trust.

The rare exceptions are exceptions, and the press makes a big deal of them for exactly that reason. “Man bites dog,” not “Dog bites man.”

Of course, mores have changed. Let your kid run free like the children of my childhood did and someone will probably call the cops.

Ninnies indeed. And I see the results when I deal with children in their late teens and early twenties. They are far more uncertain, more scared, than my cohort was at the same age. This isn’t their fault, they were never given freedom, never allowed to fail and succeed on their own terms–never expected to take care of themselves.

Doubtless this will change again, as we move into the era of ultra-surveillance, the panopticon police state. But I fear children will never again be free.